Reel life: Seeking Jason Bateman's 'inner jerk'

Australian actor Joel Edgerton burst onto the international movie scene in 2010's celebrated crime thriller “Animal Kingdom” after minor roles in “Star Wars” Episodes II and III. He's acted in TV productions and movies, among them John Carpenter's “The Thing,” “Zero Dark Thirty” and (as Ramesses II) in the epic “Exodus: Gods and Kings.”

The 41-year-old actor directs his first movie “The Gift,” a thriller he wrote and produced. It opens Friday, Aug. 7. I chatted with him during a recent Chicago visit.

Q. You get a solid dramatic role out of Jason Bateman, who started out in comedy. What motivated you to cast him in such a serious part?

A. I knew he had all the tools to play this character. I'd seen his dramatic turns in “State of Play” and in “Disconnect.” I knew he had the chops. It proves time and time again that funny people are equipped to play pathos as well as comedy.

Q. Why do comedians make terrific dramatic actors, but dramatic actors tend to stink at comedy?

A. Because dramatic actors get away with taking themselves too seriously in the realm of drama. Nobody notices how seriously they take themselves until somebody gets them to do comedy. That's not to say that some people won't do a great job of it.

Q. Bateman does. But why?

A. Jason has that “smartest guy in the room” thing going in his comedy, the ability to comment on the stupidity of the people around him when he's playing the straight guy. There's a potential real jerk inside Jason that he can access on screen when he wants to.

Q. Your movie “The Gift” avoids lots of clichés. How did you do that?

A. One of the things we wanted to do was start by going down a familiar road, then start to make right turns. Like when the dog disappears. Now we're in “Fatal Attraction” or “Cape Fear” and we know this is when the blood will start being spilled. I wanted to keep making those right turns to keep things a little more surprising.

Q. As a first-time director, how did you know what works, how long to hold a shot or what to edit out?

A. We're looking down the barrel of a wide release with this movie, and this was the first time I've had experience with focus groups. You have to be really careful about how to listen to that feedback.

Q. That's all?

A. I really trusted my instincts along the way. Near the end, I marked down every time I feel embarrassed, or I feel like something is false. I marked down every time I feel ashamed of myself as a storyteller. Then I go back and asked myself why?

Q. So how do you think “The Gift” turned out?

A. I feel proud of this as a whole piece of work. As you get closer to the end, your instincts start to diminish because you're too close to the work. Sometimes I wish could have knocked myself in the head with a hammer and made me forget, so I could watch the movie as a complete stranger.

Sadly, once you've seen behind the curtain at the magic show, there's no appreciating sitting in the audience as much anymore.

Film critics notebook:

• Join me around 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7, when I execute my duties as Master of Ceremonies for the 13th annual Flashback Weekend Horror Convention, Aug. 7-9, at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel, 5440 N. River Road, Rosemont.

This year's fest seems like a reunion of local talent. Among them are Des Plaines native Jeff Daniel Phillips (TV's Caveman commercials, Rob Zombie's “Halloween II”), Arlington Heights native Pat Healy (“The Innkeepers”) and Stuart Gordon (former artistic director of Chicago's Organic Theatre Company and director of “The Re-Animator”).

For our Suburbs-to-Showbiz profile on Phillips, go to bit.ly/1DlBroe. For our profile on Healy, to go bit.ly/1MIhVUZ. Go to flashbackweekend.com for tickets.

• “The Sensei,” starring, written by and directed by Diana Lee Inosanto, niece of martial arts superstar Bruce Lee, will be shown at 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, at the Logan Theatre 2646 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago. The 2010 release, about a gay teen bullied and ostracized during 1985 at the height of HIV and AIDS panic, kicks off the theater's martial arts film series, sponsored by Flix of Fury, Chicago Martial Arts Cinema Club. $10 admission; $40 VIP admission. Go to flixoffury.com.

• The Music Box Theatre and the CFCA will screen “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck” at 2 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 9, at the Music Box, Chicago. CFCA member Dominick Suzanne-Mayer will lead a discussion in the Music Box Lounge as part of the MBT Talks series. Go to musicboxtheate.com.

• The Chicago Film Critics Association will show John Hughes' classic “The Breakfast Club” at 1 and 7 p.m. at the Elk Grove Cinema, 1050 Arlington Heights Road, Elk Grove Village. CFCA member Patrick Bromley will conduct a post-screening discussion. Admission $5. Go to classiccinemas.com.

• The After Hours Film Society presents the documentary “Iris” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 10, at the Tivoli Theatre, 5021 Highland Ave., Downers Grove. General admission $10. Hosted by Chicago Film Critics Association members Dominick Suzanne-Mayer and Blake Goble. afterhoursfilmsociety.com.

• Elmhurst's Art@York program presents “Little England” at 1 and 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12, at the York Theatre, 150 N. York St., Elmhurst. The film will be presented in Greek with English subtitles. Admission $6.50 (seniors $5) for the matinee; $9 evening. Entertainment by Dave Rhodes, house organist at Downers Grove's Tivoli Theatre. Classiccinemas.com.

• Dann Gire's column runs Fridays in Time out!